2010 13" MBP performance with the 27" Cinema Display

Question

Hi. I have a 2010 13" Macbook Pro bought about a year and a half ago (my first Mac and despite the problems described below, I'm a very happy camper), with RAM upgraded to 8 GB but otherwise it's pretty much a standard issue machine, certainly still a good computer. Last summer I bought the 27" Cinema Display to go with it and I just love it. From time to time, though, I'm a bit concerned about the performance of my computer with the display. I usually use a lot of apps at a time (hence the maxed out memory) and with the display, more often than not, the computer runs a bit on the slow side, the animations are not the smoothest, the "beach ball" is oft-present, or, very prominently, there's no way flash video (such as on YouTube) plays smoothly in full screen, making it unwatchable (I often "cheat" by using the universal access zoom to magnify the video, which does the job pretty well). The fan inside the laptop usually spins audibly at the maximum RPM and the CPU temperature is usually around 70°C (rarely less, but rarely much more). None of these problems happen when I'm using it without the display, on the road. I have already given up on keeping the see-thru Zagg plastic case when at home and not traveling, to keep the computer cooler in the clamshell mode and I'd be willing to buy an external cooling system (the Moshi Zefyr 2 cooler looks really worthy) but do you think the performance degradation could be heat-related at all? I know my MBP is really the entry-level model and still has the ancient C2D CPU, only 256 MB of video memory and I shouldn't expect miracles. But I just wanted to make sure I'm doing everything right and my computer is really "supposed" to perform worse with such a large display. Thank you very much for any kind of help or advice.

Answer 1

Thanks a lot for your reply. Isn't it weird, though, that Apple would make the display compatible with all of their notebooks without any warning about the possible performance penalty with some of the lower end models? Why aren't they offering smaller external displays? And the MBP 7,1 is no slouch too, when this particular Cinema Display originally shipped, it was the most powerful Apple laptop after the 15" and 17" MBPs.
Oh well, it still works OK though, and I'm going to stick with this setup for at least another year or so, certianly till after the rumored MBP redesign takes place and I hope the graphics on the future machines will be powerful enough to drive large displays smoothly. It's a good thing the Cinema Display is future-proof and forward compatible with the Tunderbolt port. All in all, it's a beautiful display and will remain so for a long time.
Do you think an external cooler (such as the mensioned Zefyr 2) would help in the meantime?